It is my privilege to instruct people of all ages in learn-to-swim classes. This article will focus on what a parent can do to assist her little child to transition from one swim season to the next.
During the summer months as a parent observes her child in the swimming pool there is much advancement made. The first few lessons might show her child bonded to the shallow-end steps with just a few bubbles blown onto the water’s surface. As the weeks elapse her child explores chest-deep water followed by flutter kicking as well as holding breath for “X” number of seconds. The summer months continue as the parent plays with her child at home and at friend’s pools in conjunction with swim lessons. At the conclusion of the summer her child might accomplish several intermediate swim skills (float, underwater exploration, or an altitude jump from the pool’s edge). The parent is as happy as her child when the child acquires water gratification toward the conclusion of the swim season.
The calendar pages start to flip over on the datebook: October, November, December, January, February, March, April and now it is time to start thinking about returning to the swimming pool. As the water in the pool starts to heat up and the parent gets her child ready for the first swim day of the new season something unsettling might occur. The parent talks to her child about re-entering the water and when that conversation takes place her child shows apprehension. Let’s pause and think about this a moment. How many months are there between the end of one swim season and the beginning of a new swim season? Almost the same number of months it takes to have a baby! Those eight or nine months of not swimming, for a child who is three, four or five, are a long time. Let’s take as an example a three year old child who has lived for thirty six months. A calculation on the interval of time since that child swam in the Fall until re-starting in the Summer is nearly 25% of that child’s life.
There are two important ways for a parent to assist her child with water adjustment. One is to take photos and videos when your child is doing well in the water. Especially for a visual-learner it is important for the parent to show her child these action pictures. The pictures usually trigger a memory of good times in the water as well as show competence. When the upcoming swim season approaches search out those pictures in the family album. The parent talks with her child about what that child was able to accomplish in the water while memories of all of the fun times surface for the child. For instance the parent might say while pointing to a picture, “Look, honey, at how your face was under the water last summer; I remember that you could keep your head under the water for four seconds”.
The second way for a parent to assist her child with water adjustment is to practice swim techniques in the bath tub. Yes, reading and incorporating TUB Swimming techniques during the off-season, while in the comfort of warm bath water, will facilitate the transition to the swimming pool in the summer. There is a sample chapter of TUB Swimming on the tubswimming.com web page. You can find another illustration of the book on the complementary area of Amazon’s Kindle.
Is YOUR child prepared for Summer SWIM?
TUB Swimming 